To Be A Burning Star
by Yaraslava Rada
Summary: Based on the Netflix adaptation. Cannon-compliant. Collection of oneshots. 1. What posessed Reginald Hargreeves to try and adopt 43 children? 2. The War. 3. BenandKlaus bromance.
1. I Never Told You What I Do For A Living

Chapter 1: I NEVER TOLD YOU WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING

Reginald is a filthy rich bastard. He's in Russia on a business trip, he's walking down the street, cane tip tapping along the ground when a lady comes out of a building in hysterics. She's screaming something about a child being born, a freak of nature, a godless heathen. He calms her down and has her explain again, without the panic. A woman at the pool had spontaneously given birth to a child. She wasn't pregnant when she came into the pool, and had ballooned up and given birth within a few minutes. He has to see this for himself.

The child was born to a woman hardly out of childhood herself. But there she sits, exhausted with the babe cradled in her arms. He reaches out to touch the infant who grips his hand with surprising strength. He locks eyes with the child and everything goes black.

He sees his house in tatters, a house he hadn't built yet, once tall and looming, now a pile of rubble around him. "The Umbrella Academy" blazoned on the arch of the entrance, a name he's only thought to himself before, and never spoken aloud.

Then it changes again, the world is peaceful, deceptively quiet, it's night time, the moon looms ominously overhead. A blast of light reaches out and impacts the moon, and it wasn't merely light but a signal of some kind activating an atomic bomb of sorts that blows the moon into pieces. It's raining moonrock and it's no longer quiet but explosively loud in chaos that only fuels his curiosity. Before he can get a good look around things change again.

It's the aftermath. A newspaper reads March 24th 2019, and Reginald can't help but cringe that this happens within his lifetime, 30 years and this will be reality. In the rubble there are people, men and women, with his symbol tattooed on their arms. He'd tried to stop this from happening. He'd raised these special children as his own, brought them together to try and stop the apocalypse. He knows that these people are special, that they have the power to stop this from happening, if only Reginald had raised them properly. If the Reginald of this reality had had the foresight to bind them all together tighter, to make them better, to have them reach their potential, then perhaps this fate could be avoided.

But then he's back with the girl and her child. "How much?" He asks, desperate to have this, to hold onto a part of this thing that has grown within his mind. He needs this child in the Umbrella Academy to show him the future. So he knows he's doing the right thing that he's on the right path to save the world from destruction. "Skolka?" He demands as she looks up at him uncomprehending.

"Niet." She says shaking her head, looking down at the child in her arms. A boy steps up behind her and glares at him.

He wonders what future the child has shown her, for when she glances back at the boy her gaze returns to his steely and determined. He is forced to leave empty handed.

It's okay. He knows there are more and things will be fine without one of them. They'll all harness their powers and save the day, they'll stop the apocalypse from happening and it will all be thanks to Eccentric Billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

Except.

He only gets seven. And they're children and he hadn't realized what it meant to be a parent. They're disobedient and wildly selfish things. They all have their own personalities and reactions to things. They're manipulative little bastards, so he hardens himself against them. He tries to raise them as soldiers. If they're good they get what they want, if they're bad they're punished. But when they're bad people end up dead so he tries to funnel that energy of theirs into saving the world, even though they're children.

Except.

7 is too dangerous, too wild and uncontrollable.

6 gets himself killed.

5 doesn't listen and vanishes into time itself.

4 is a drug addict who won't learn to control his powers.

3 wanders off into the obscurity of stardom.

2 is a vigilante, unwilling to follow any orders but his own.

And 1 is too invested in gaining his approval to learn how to lead the team.

Reginald gets more and more desperate as the time draws nearer.

He's sent 1 to the moon in case there was a bomb or something on it that was activated by that beam of light. But the boy sends him moon rocks and mission reports and if he'd found the kind of thing Reginald had him looking for, he would have sent a transmission for further instructions.

And then it's just over a week away. He doesn't know how things will play out. He only knows what he'd seen in that child's future it'd shown him.

He has to bring the Umbrella Academy back together.

They need to be a unit if they plan on stopping what's to come. So he and Pogo and the Android create a plan to bring them all back home…

AN:/ I've finally found something that sparked a bit of creativity once again. Please let me know if you've enjoyed it! I've got another cannon-compliant piece brewing revolving around my beloved Number Four and his beloved, so keep an eye out for that!


	2. Mama, We All Go To Hell

Chapter 2: MAMA, WE ALL GO TO HELL

The first battle, they spend weeks in the trenches. He wasn't able to bring his briefcase with him so he can't leave. He learns a lot about war and guns and brotherhood in that first month. It was his intention to leave as soon as he could, but there was that cute guy, Dave, and he was intrigued and had never really had good impulse control. They became best friends, trusted the other with their life, and eventually fell into something more. The briefcase wasn't forgotten about, but it slowly slid down his priority list. Dave. Himself. The Briefcase. His Brothers in arms. The War. His family and the apocolypse, which was like, fifty years in the future.

-UA-

Klaus and Dave spend most of their time together. They were put into the same squad and were usually partnered up. Their unit spends a lot of time in the trenches. There are some quiet moments in between shooting to kill and being shot at in return. They'd been officially together for two months, and Klaus had been here for four. In the trenches they slept slumped against the other, one hand in the others, the other hand wrapped around their guns. They were settling down for the night when Dave begins a conversation.

"Hey, Klaus." He whispers, hands reaching for his dog tags.

"Yeah, Dave?"

"If I…If I go before you…I want you to have these." He says staring into Klaus' eyes.

"Ahaha." Klaus laughs slightly hysterical. "Like that will happen." He brushes it off even though they both know it's possible.

"Please, Klaus. I don't have anyone who will value them more than I know you will."

"I…alright, Dave." Klaus mutters, unhappy contemplating that future, but knowing the small acknowledgement will mean so much.

"Thanks."

-UA-

Klaus and Dave spend more and more time together on the front lines. They're sitting across from each other drinking the watered down swill their commanders called beer and smoking cigarettes, enjoying a moment of peace. Klaus is puffing away, gaze to the cloud filled sky when Dave reaches over and clasps his hands. His gaze flickers down to see Dave studying his tattoos intently.

"I've been meaning to ask…" He says, gently cradling his hands, palms up. "What do these tattoos mean?"

"Oh," Klaus says, getting ready to deflect. "I was young and dumb and thought it would be funny-"

"Don't bullshit me, Klaus. I know all your tattoos have meaning. You've got the crouching tiger for this damn Valley and war, and the battalion logo for our fallen brothers. What do these symbolize?" He asks, thumbs rubbing over the letters.

"Well…It's going to sound lame…" He says eyes flickering to the side, unable to hold his gaze. "I-I've always felt like I had a connection to…the dead. So I got the idea from those Ouiji boards. Like…to better communicate…with them."

"Like with your bother Ben?"

"Yeah." Klaus whispers, choked up, eyes returning to Dave's.

Ben hasn't been born yet, and so he hasn't died yet and isn't a ghost yet. Trust him, he's tried to get close enough to sober to conjure him, without success.

-UA-

Klaus is just really happy. Even though there's a war and they're killing people and he's creating ghosts now, but he's with Dave and they were best friends and now they're more than that and he's never been happier in his entire life. Which honestly says something Klaus doesn't want to think about, being happier in a war zone than with his family.

-UA-

They're drunk and in love and having a night on the town and they decide to get matching tattoos. "Klaus loves Dave" and "Dave loves Klaus" seem perfectly appropriate all things considered. The boys in their unit laugh it off, assuming Klaus lost a bet, which happens often enough to be plausible. Dave wears his shirt all the time so no one knows he's got one too. Dave and Klaus know better though. The guys try to get Klaus to bet more tattoos, but "once was more than enough you guys, I learned my lesson. Hahaha."

-UA-

Then he's dead. He's dead and dead and there's no medic and they're still on the front lines so Klaus pulls him back and back and back. Their superiors yell at him but they see he's trying to get his brother to safety, to a medic but he's dead and Klaus is in shock and there's no way he's fit to be on the front lines. They lay him out in the medic tent next to what's left of Dave and he can't even process the fact that he's dead and gone and only able to be a ghost now.

They'd talked about getting home and opening a bar and having a life but Dave's dead and there's nothing keeping him here now. He still somehow has the briefcase stashed away in his military duffle but he can't jump now because he's still in shock and he knows that would be bad. So he lays there, eyes glued to the one thing in the world he cares about more than himself and it is just a _thing_ now, a corpse, no more life and laughter and smiles and kisses. Dave's dead and there's an echo of "if I go before you" and he's reaching across the space between them, hands shaking, things are all blurry, why is Dave blurry and oh it's because he's crying again and he can't bring himself to touch the man.

Maybe if he doesn't acknowledge it, it isn't real and that's totally not Dave and it's just some other soldier which is only marginally better because they still lost a brother but he's in medical and maybe he was hurt and Dave is still fighting the good fight, only without him now. But that jaw and those cheeks and his eyes are closed but that's Dave and he's dead and oh god he'd been so busy fighting he didn't even notice his love die right next to him and fuck he needs to leave, to not be here right now, but his body's exhausted and still in shock and he can barely twist himself around to face the other side.

He passes out at some point because the quiet sounds of camp wake him up. The fighting's stopped and he doesn't know if they made any progress or not, if Dave's death was in a battle that actually made a difference or not, not that it really matters cause Dave. Is. Dead. And he's back to being all alone and he really needs to leave. To go back to his family.

He needs his family. So he sits himself up, looks over the frozen corpse of his most precious person and promptly breaks down in tears again. He hovers over him, hands shakily finding their way to his cold hard cheeks as he presses their foreheads together one last time. When he comes up gasping for breath he pulls the dog tags from the body. He clicks the chain into place around his own neck as he makes his way out of the tent.

It is night time; there's a small smokeless fire going and there are a few lookouts posted, but most everyone is asleep. He goes to his and Dave's tent to get the briefcase. He'd checked before, nine months ago, but makes sure the top knobs are set to "round trip" and that of the two arrows in a circle, one is lit and the other is dark and that's good enough for him, it'll take him back. Not home, because his home is now a cooled corpse he's about to leave behind forever, but back.

AN:/Okay. SO I couldn't wait to post this chapter. XD I just really love Klaus and Dave. The thought of Klaus being happy and healthy(ier) in a war zone, than with his own disfunctional family...and then for this to happen and he has to go back because there isn't really any other choice. The only other piece I've been contemplating is set in the future-past of season 2. Which would be cannon-compliant until S2 comes out in forever. SO I'll probably post that in a seperate story, to keep things simple. (And it's nowhere near to complete like these two chapters were. XD) Let me know what you think!


	3. The Graffiti They Write on Your Grave

They were having a family meeting when it happened. Diego, Five and Luther were arguing about something, Allison was trying to calm them down. Vanya hadn't even been paying enough attention to know what they were going on about, when she heard it.

"I liked you better when you were dead." Klaus deadpans, gaze locked in the middle distance, eyes unfocused as their siblings rage on around them. She gasps at the cruelty, eyes snapping to Ben to see his reaction.

"Oh, well in that case, lemme just go kill myself so you can go back to telling everyone how I agree with you when I don't." Ben replies equally as serious, punching Klaus in the shoulder.

"Please do," Klaus grins, face lighting up. "It'll make my life sooo much easier. Two votes for the price of one!" He cackles, clapping happily. Ben just rolls his eyes.

"Uhh guys?" Vanya is so confused, she's upset at Klaus and he didn't even say those words to her.

"What's up V?" Ben asks, turning to her. He doesn't look upset or hurt or angry at Klaus.

"Umm…Nothing, nothing. What are they fighting about again?"

-TUA-

Allison rounds the corner into the kitchen only to be stopped in her tracks.

Klaus is at the kitchen table, piling weed into a cigarette wrap. Ben is sitting on the counter behind him reading a book and scolding him.

"God Ben, just shut your pie hole. Go talk at a wall or something." Klaus whines, waving his hand as if to shoo Ben away.

"I _can_ talk to actual people now you dooface." Ben turns a page in his book. "You know, what with being alive again and all."

"That's great, but in this house, I'm sure a wall would still be better for you." Klaus licks the joint closed and kisses it.

"It'll certainly be better than talking to you." Ben snaps back, still engrossed in whatever he's reading.

"Oh, go die." Allison's soft gasp is overlapped by Bens quick response.

"Why? So you'll be the only one I can talk to?"

-TUA-

"Have you seen the way Klaus treats Ben?"

"The things he says to him you mean? Yeah."

"And the easy dismissal, never really looking at him or touching him or-"

"I always thought he was talking to himself, before, you know."

"Yeah, me too."

"But he was talking to Ben like that, all along."

"It's like…Stockholm Syndrome or something. It's gotta be."

-TUA-

Ben wanders into the Library looking for a book. He pauses at the site of his entire family, minus Klaus, sitting around a table facing the door. They don't have books or paper or food (which would have gotten them all into a lot of trouble if Reginald had seen). Nothing that would give them a reason to be in the library.

"Uhhh…Hi guys."

"Hey Ben. How are things going?" Five asks seeming genuinely curious.

"Good. Great. Being alive is…well, it's nice."

"Yeah? How are you adjusting?"

"It's…fine."

"And Klaus?"

"He's good too."

"You and Klaus?" Allison pries.

"We're fine. Why? What's going on?"

"Look, Ben." Luther begins, getting impatient. "If Klaus is giving you trouble, just let us know. We've had enough of abusing a sibling. We won't let it happen to anyone else."

Luther sounds so sincere, but as usual he's totally off-base when it comes to Klaus. It surprises Ben to see his other siblings sharing his delusions. Ben is confused as to what gave them the impression that Klaus is abusing him. Ben and Klaus are like Cookies and Cream, Peanut butter and Jelly, Macaroni and Cheese, Waffles and Eggs, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Mashed potatoes and Gravy: they go perfectly well together, sometimes even better together than apart.

He and Klaus have the healthiest relationship between all of his siblings, they get along better than even Luther and Allison. Ben takes another look around and sees they're all just as concerned.

"You…guys _do_ know Klaus is my favorite, right?"

"What?" A few of them say in shock.

"Klaus is my favorite sibling."

"I thought we didn't play favorites?" Allison demands sounding hurt.

"Oh sure, because You and Luther, and Five and Vanya _totally_ aren't playing favorites. Even Diego likes Klaus best."

"Yeah," Diego admits with a half shrug and crossing his arms, "but I don't let him talk to me like you do."

"My relationship with Klaus is different from my relationship with you all."

"Why though?"

"Why Five? Because you disappeared at 13. Because I died at 18. Because none of the rest of you ever believed Klaus when he said he could see me. Because for _ten years_ I followed Klaus through every high, every crash, every fight, every withdrawal, every night out on the street, every rehab, every second of every day."

"And you don't blame him for that? For summoning you to him and chaining you down instead of letting you rest in peace?" Luther demands, angrily.

"Klaus didn't summon me." Ben says slowly, trying to drive the point home. "Klaus has never summoned anyone. They all just appear. I just appeared. How the hell could I have rested in peace? With how I died? Knowing that you would blame yourself, Luther? Knowing that bastard was still torturing you guys? Knowing that none of you would be there for Klaus? That he would spiral and there would be no one there to help him?"

"I-We-He-" They begin, all trying to talk over the other to get their point across but Ben has had enough sitting back and listening and observing and not being able to affect anything.

"No. You don't get to judge him like that! You all can control your powers. You don't get what it's like to have them constantly there. You have to consciously use your powers. Luther has to decide to lift something a ton and a half in weight. Diego has to actively throw something. Allison has to say her specific phrase. Five has to decide to jump through space. Klaus, Klaus always has the dead following him. Every moment of every day there is a specter of some sort following him around, and the only way he can stop it is to get high out of his mind! I have a monster inside me, pushing to get out! Vanya can't feel strong emotions or else she can blow up the moon!"

"That's just control!"

"No it's not! For Klaus it's a literal _sixth sense_. Imagine not being able to smell, or taste, or touch! You can't control something like that. You can't just decide to go deaf for a few hours. Or to be literally blind. Sure, you can cover your eyes and ears, you can just not eat, but it's not the same as truly not having it."

"Why are you defending him so much?"

"_Because he's my brother_! All of you treat him like shit! Like just because he's a junkie he's worth nothing to you! You're always telling him to 'get out of the van, Klaus' but all he wants is to be there for you! To help you as best he can, to have someone he knows and loves actually show that they care about him for ONCE IN HIS LIFE! How dare you judge me for caring about him! You all are so much more fucked up, you have no room to talk! I can't even begin to-"

A thin pair of arms wraps around Ben's middle, cutting him off midsentence. Ben can feel Klaus' head pressed in between his shoulder blades, his shuddering breaths and death grip are the only signs that he's crying.

"Klaus…" Ben says, voice sounding hushed from the yelling a moment ago. He gently pries Klaus' arms from his waist to turn around and face his brother. "Klaus, I-"

"It's-it's okay, Bentacles." He hiccups, watery smile and bright eyes. "You don't have to try and explain things to them."

"But they thought you were abusing me." Ben says seriously, knowing how much their siblings opinions really do matter to him.

"Verbally I presume, and not sexily?"

"What," Ben's thrown for a loop, but he should have known Klaus would just brush it off in front of them. "Klaus, of course not sexually." Ben scoffs a laugh.

"But I am sort of an asshole."

"What? And you don't think I give as good as I get?"

"Weeeell…I know you don't! My jokes are the best, yours are dead boring."

"Oh right, and how have I spent the last ten years? If my humor is dead, it's all your fault for dragging its ghostly self from the afterlife."

Ben ushers Klaus out of the library shooting one last glare over his shoulder at their siblings.

-TUA-

"What. Was that?" Luther asks in shock.

"That. Was exactly what I was expecting." Five says, shaking his head and disappearing in a flash of light.

"Huh. They're fiiiine." Diego says, meandering out of the room.

"It's hard to remember they've been together all this time. Their relationship has grown over the last ten years, and for the most part, Ben still treats us like he did when we were 18." Vanya muses.

"So they really are fine. I don't get it, but I guess it's not really any of my business." Allison agrees.

"So we do nothing? We just watch as Klaus verbally abuses our brother?"

"Ben is fine with it. Maybe they're just teasing each other?" Vanya suggests, moving to stand.

"About his death?"

"They've had ten years to deal with it together. Klaus always did have a warped sense of humor about death, maybe it's contagious." Allison says following Vanya from the room.

AN:/I love BenandKlaus. They have a wonderful Bromance on screen, and every time I hear the song "A Friend Like You" by Andy Grammar I think of Ben and Klaus. I love the thought of their messed up ghostly humor offending the other UA kids. Haha. I really hope season 2 does their relationship justice. Un-betaed, #wedielikemen. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!


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